Earl Frank Egleson

My maternal grandfather, Earl Frank Egleson, was born in 1902 in Middle Fork, West Virginia. I had a special bond with Grandpa Earl. As far back as I can remember, he managed to spend a lot of time with me. One day when I was four or five, he took me for a walk from our house in Kensington, Maryland to Wheaton Plaza, which was probably three blocks away. It was a great adventure for me. I remember going through woods, although there are no woods around there anymore.

He spent countless hours playing catch with me. I had a lively arm but struggled with command. In other words, I would throw as hard as I could and didn’t care too much where it went. Once I sailed one well past him and into a peach tree we had in our backyard, knocking down a good number of fruit. I got in big trouble for that one.

My mom has given me a number of mementos from him. He was big into cars, and somehow she had a really cool gearshift knob from a 1929 Graham-Paige he had. I have a picture of him sitting in that car but it doesn’t reproduce well. Here’s that gearshift knob and a picture of a 1929 Graham-Paige from http://www.graham-paige.com/pics.htm. It’s a pretty baller ride.

One of my prized possessions is a violin that belonged to his grandfather, Noah. The Eglesons were mountain people and would have big family picnics on—I am not making this up—Turkeybone Mountain, near Helvetia. There is a picture in my study, just under the framed violin, of one of those family picnics, from the summer of 1902. My grandfather, in the arms of his mother, is six months old. Noah is in the center of the frame, holding the violin. He looks pretty bad ass to me.

During World War II Earl came to Washington, D.C. to find work. He found a job at the same torpedo factory in Alexandria, Virginia as my dad’s father. While he was there he machined some pendants. I have one in the shape of a torpedo and two bombs. I intend to turn the bombs into cufflinks and the torpedo into a tie clasp.

The last item I have is my absolute favorite. It’s a little hen about two inches tall. As the story goes, Earl had met Blanche Leona Harper and was taken by her. One day he showed up at the children’s home where she worked to talk with her. While he was sitting across from her, he stole the trinket from her desk so he would have a reason to see her again.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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